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Cell phones are supposed to make our lives easier. So why do wireless companies keep packing them with pricey extras--like color screens, Web browsers, games and e-mail--that most people don't need? Now several companies are developing stripped-down, single-use models targeted for casual users who just want to take a cell phone on vacation or stash one with their emergency flashlight. One of the first to market will be the Hop-On Wireless (shown here) priced at $30 for 30 min. of talk time. To keep costs down, the device (about the size of a deck of cards) contains only a quarter of the components found in a typical cell phone. It doesn't take incoming calls, and there's no keypad or display. Instead, users plug in an earpiece (included) and speak the number aloud; voice-recognition technology converts the sounds into digits and places the call. To activate the phone, users simply push the green call button. Color-coded lights indicate when the 30 min. of prepaid talk time is running low (yellow) or out (red). The lithium-ion batteries will last for up to two years, so your minutes will probably run out before your batteries do.
--INVENTOR Peter Michaels, Hop-On Wireless --AVAILABILITY In December, for $30 --TO LEARN MORE Visit hop-on.com
for your health
LIFESAVER FOR YOUR LIVER
The liver is one of the most complex organs in the body--and one of the hardest to replace. It removes toxins from the blood and manufactures up to 1,000 proteins, metabolites and other vital substances. Now scientists trying to develop an artificial liver have found a way around these complexities: they let rabbit-liver cells do the work. The Bio-Artificial Liver developed by Dr. Kenneth Matsumura has a two-part chamber--patient's blood on one side, live rabbit cells suspended in a solution on the other--with a semipermeable membrane in between. As toxins from the blood pass through the membrane, the rabbit cells metabolize them and send the resulting proteins and other good things back to the other side. Because the rabbit cells never come into direct contact with human blood, the chances of infection or rejection are minimized. The device, now in its final stage of clinical trials, is meant primarily as a "bridge" to an eventual liver transplant for patients with acute liver failure or for those who have rejected a previous transplant. In some cases, it may also give a damaged liver time to heal on its own, eliminating the need for a transplant altogether.
--INVENTOR Dr. Kenneth Matsumura, Alin Foundation --AVAILABILITY In 2002 --TO LEARN MORE Visit alinfoundation.com
PAIN ZAPPER
Doctors sometimes let patients suffering from chronic pain self-administer prescribed doses of intravenous drugs. But those patients have always had to be tethered to an IV and drug bag. The first fully implantable drug pump could change all that. Here's how it works: morphine is stored in a pager-size pump just under the skin of the abdomen. A plastic catheter runs from the pump to the fluid-filled space outside the spinal cord, where pain signals travel. When the patient presses a handheld remote, the pump sends a measured dose of morphine directly to the spine. According to its maker, the SynchroMed works better and requires much smaller doses of medication than intravenous methods because it intercepts pain signals on their way to the brain.